Rooms
Rooms refer to the individual "tiles" which are arranged to make the dungeon. Each room serves a different purpose in terms of gameplay, and will call for a different list of potential entities to spawn within the level. Starting Points We'll want the first room that the players start in to be devoid of any enemies, so they have a moment to get acclimated before stepping out into the (location tbd). The opening room should always exit in the same direction - likely up - so that we can put some nice art here, and add a bit of ceremony to the act of starting a run. The first several rooms that the players start in should be weighted in such a way that they're guaranteed to receive a small selection of weapons with which to equip themselves before having to move further. Filler Areas The bulk of each level - approximately 40-60% - should be made up of a random selection of filler areas. These areas will usually consist of a pre-built room populated by randomly determined enemies, but as these sections will account for the majority of our game's content, we should make sure there's a good deal of variety. Skirmish Room These will account for the majority - about 60-75% - of the filler rooms the player will randomly encounter. These will have a minimal amount of scattered resources, and will mostly consist of a selection of enemies which the players must defeat in order to advance. We should consider whether or not we want to lock the doors - that is, whether or not players should be able to leave rooms that have not yet been cleared of enemies. Upgrade Room Like skirmish rooms, but intentionally seeded with tougher enemies. A chest/bag/receptacle full of stat-ups is clearly visible to the player, but is inaccessible until each enemy in the room is defeated. These rooms should only appear roughly 5%-8% of the time, and should take roughly 20-40 seconds to clear. Essentially, these should feel like mini-bosses, and the reward should be heavily weighted towards a complex upgrade. Sanctuary A room of respite, entering this room will allow the players to slowly heal. These rooms shouldn't ever drop in early levels, but in difficult sections of the game, they should start to spawn roughly 1% of the time. These should be extremely rare, no more than one every 1-2 levels, and should be something the players are relieved to have found. These will be one of the cooldown areas that break up the action. We should consider whether or not to make these reusable, as we may not want to encourage players to constantly backtrack for healing. Minigame Rooms Minigame rooms are devoid of dangerous or damaging enemies, and allow for brief breaks from the action for grab-bag style activities. The purpose of these rooms is not only to provide a break from the action, but also to help balance the number of stat boosts between players. Gambling Rooms These rooms will be one of the options for allowing players to spend a lot of gold at once. In the center of the room will be a block or entity which solicits a gold deposit from one of the players. If granted, the players participate in a short (5-10 seconds) mini-game in which stat-ups and potentially upgrades are strewn about the room. One thing which is notable here is that regardless of who inputs the gold, any player can receive the benefits, allowing the players to re-balance themselves if they wish, or allowing for a rapid collect-a-thon battle between less generous players. PVP Rooms When players enter a PVP room, their positions are immediately changed to the corners of the room, and a brief, 10-15 second''mandatory''duel between players begins. Players do not take damage to their health, but rather drop some of their collected stat-ups and gold. Players that have collected the most gold/stats will drop more every time they are hit; the player with the least will hardly drop any. Like gambling rooms, These will hopefully help to distribute stat points more evenly between players. Boss Hallways Boss Hallways are run-n-gun staple. They provide a dip in intensity leading up to a boss room, and as players become familiar with the game, the recognizable hallway serves as an instant cue that something cool is about to happen, increasing anticipation. We should have every boss room spawn at the end of a single-room hallway. This will also help us to ensure that the boss room is only accessible from one direction, which will help in boss encounter design.